1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to communication systems; and more particularly to a communication system that simultaneously supports both voice communications and multimedia communications to a single caller to provide various functions including answering a telephone call with an audio greeting coupled with a web page, and providing: universal inbox functions, call routing functions, technical support functions, messaging functions and information capture functions among other functions. A system constructed according to the present invention improves the quality of the experience a caller receives when a call is not completed to a human being.
2. Related Art
Voice communication systems are generally known in the art. Wired communication systems such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) have been known for many years to service voice communications. Further, wireless communication systems such as the North American (NAM) cellular system, code division multiple access (CDMA) enabled cellular system, time division multiple access (TDMA) enabled cellular systems and global system for mobility (GSM) cellular systems are also generally known to service voice communications. However, voice communication systems could not be easily applied for data transfer functions. Thus, with the development and refinement of digital computers, data communication systems were developed.
Data communication systems are also generally known in the art. Local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), the Internet, intranet and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks, for example, support the interchange of digital information between end point devices as well as between client computers and server computers. The client computer provides a powerful interface with which a caller may transmit and receive not only data but multi-media communications as well. With the growth of the Internet, many applications have been developed that use the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and transfer data in the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) that support multi-media communications between server computers and client computers.
However, operation of data communication systems is generally dissimilar to that of voice communication systems. While in voice communication systems continuous bandwidth is typically provided in a time-switched fashion, data communication systems generally switch asynchronously to transfer packetized data. Thus, data communication systems are generally incompatible with voice communication systems such as the PSTN. Nonetheless, adaptations have been made which allow voice communication systems to provide data transfer functions and for data communication systems to provide voice services. For example, modems are commonly deployed in voice communication systems to transfer digital data over the voice communication systems. It is common for users of the Internet to connect to Internet service providers (ISPs) via dial-up links that serve to transfer digital data between the end user and the ISP.
Further, voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) applications serve to provide phone-like voice service over the Internet without PSTN long distance charges. In VOIP applications, voice signals are digitized and packetized at a sending location, transmitted via the Internet in a digital format to a receiving location where they are converted into analog voice signals and played to a called party. Thus, efforts have been made to merge the voice services provided by voice communication systems with the data transfer functions typically provided by data communication systems. As evident, the merging of such dissimilar technologies has provided limited benefits.
Other difficulties arise when functions provided by data communication systems are attempted to be merged with functions provided by voice communication systems. For example, voice mail is typically left on a voice communication system and received via the voice communication system. However, email and data files are typically received via a data communication system. Moreover, facsimile transmissions may be received by either the voice communication system or the data communication system. Since these messages are received in dissimilar formats, a client must receive the messages either from a multi-media enabled computer or from both a telephone, to receive the voice mail, and a computer system to receive the electronic mail, digitized facsimiles and data files. Because the messages arrive in dissimilar formats, a client computer receiving the messages must execute specialized software to merge the messages into a common format or into a set of formats supported by the client computer. Substantial overhead is consumed in the client computer to simply receive and merge the messages.
Other limitations involve voice communication systems themselves. In many organizations, callers are greeted by, or transferred to an automatic call answering/routing system through which they must provide input to reach a desired extension or a desired service. To execute commands within the call answering system, the caller typically uses the touch tone pad. However, due to the limited number of keys and the difficulty of both listening and pressing the keys, callers have difficulty using the automatic call answering/routing system.
Another limitation of voice communication systems involves the manner in which communication is accomplished when a called party is not available. If the caller desires to leave a message to the called party, the message must be left in a voice format. If a caller desires to know the whereabouts of a called party, the caller will typically be unable to determine any further information without communicating with a representative of the called party. Thus, when a called party cannot be found, the caller is left with few options.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for an improved communication system that combines the benefits of voice communication systems with the benefits provided by data communication systems.
Thus, to overcome the above described shortcomings of the prior devices among other shortcomings, a communication system constructed according to the present invention supports both voice and multimedia communications. The communication system allows callers to receive multimedia information and provides a multimedia input vehicle for callers to interact with the communication system. In providing these benefits, the communication system answers telephone calls with a web page presented to the caller. The web page allows the caller to receive and send multimedia information to the communication system and associated application servers.
The communication system includes a voice subsystem and a multimedia subsystem. The voice subsystem couples to the PSTN and services a voice communication received by the communication system from a caller. The multimedia subsystem couples to the voice subsystem and supports multimedia communications. In supporting multimedia communications, the multimedia subsystem provides a multimedia interface to the caller upon receipt of the voice communication from the caller. Based upon interaction with the caller thereinafter, the multimedia subsystem supports communication functions via the multimedia interface.
When placing a call to the communication system the call may originate from a multimedia enabled device or from a device that is not multimedia enabled. When the call originates from a phone that supports multimedia communications, the multimedia subsystem directs the multimedia interface to the phone. However, when the call originates from a phone that does not support multimedia communications, the multimedia interface is directed to an associated multimedia enabled device. When first calling the communication system, the caller may designate a multimedia enabled device to receive the multimedia interface. The multimedia enabled device can be identified by the via Digit Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF) tones from the calling telephone set. Then, after designating the device, in subsequent calls, the communication system automatically directs the multimedia communication to the designated device.
The voice subsystem may include a switch that is capable of routing the call to one of a plurality of destination devices coupled to the voice subsystem. In operation of the switch, calls may also be sent directly to the voice subsystem without a further intended destination so that the caller directly accesses the multimedia capabilities of the communication system. The voice subsystem may provide call processing and routing functions as well as messaging functions. The voice subsystem may also provide extended services, some of which are intended for service with phones that are not multimedia enabled.
In one embodiment, the multimedia subsystem comprises a server computer that couples not only to the voice subsystem but to the Internet, an intranet, a wireless network and to other resources. The multimedia subsystem may include an information posting subsystem and an information access subsystem that allows callers to post information and to access information. The multimedia subsystem may also include an application program interface subsystem that allows the caller to initiate execution of an application program on the multimedia subsystem.
In still another embodiment, the communication system includes a universal inbox subsystem that receives, stores and delivers inbox items including voice mail, electronic mail, video mail, text mail and facsimiles. In operating the universal inbox, the multimedia subsystem supports delivery of all inbox items from the universal inbox subsystem to the caller via a standard transfer protocol. In such operation, the universal inbox subsystem converts inbox items to a standard format upon receipt. Methods of operation proceed according to the communication system described herein. Moreover, other aspects of the present invention will become apparent with further reference to the drawings and specification which follow.